Summary: Chaos stirs as Uchiha Sasuke switches places at the worst possible time.

~o0O0o~

Uchiha Shuffle

Chapter 3

~o0O0o~

Canon

The man who called himself Madara had watched everything unfold from the shadows. At first, he'd believed that Sasuke was trying to get Itachi to lower his guard. But then the boy kept up the act even after Itachi attacked and made it clear he had no patience for games. Oh, how that must have pained Itachi, to strike out at the one thing he still lived for.

As the battle dragged on, Itachi decided to up the ante and ensnared his brother in a deep Tsukuyomi, something that even Madara would have had trouble with.

Sasuke broke the illusion like it was glass.

That was . . . unexpected.

Madara knew that Sasuke had trained extensively under Orochimaru, but to be that proficient in genjutsu. That shattered his estimations of the boy.

The interesting part, though, was after.

Itachi, coughing his lungs bloody, claimed the impossible. "You are not my brother."

Behind his mask, Madara frowned as he immediately glanced down next to him to where a humanoid figure, half-white and half-black, crouched to the stone floor. Zetsu looked utterly baffled. "That can't be right," the white half whispered in protest, his strange voice cloying the air. "Sasuke's chakra is the same. Replicating someone so perfectly is impossible."

"Your clones have that ability, Zetsu," Madara murmured quietly, still transfixed on the scene before him.

"No one else has our ability," Black Zetsu countered. "We're sure of that."

Madara regarded the plant-human hybrid for a moment, then turned back to the doomed Uchiha brothers. Itachi had collapsed, and Sasuke was now screaming his name over and over again, as though trying to call him from the other side.

Itachi opened his eyes one last time and hissed, "Liar."

He died with his face twisted in pain and fury.

Madara watched, his interest soaring as Sasuke's eyes went wide on the edge of a familiar madness. He'd known that kind of pain before, when he watched girl he'd loved die at the hands of a man she trusted with her life. If he was feeling that kind of pain, Madara knew what was to come.

Just as the thought entered his head, he saw Sasuke's sharingan stretch and spin, and when the eyes settled, the pattern was that of a starburst.

"Mangekyō Sharingan," Madara observed. "It seems we have Itachi's new replacement."

The Zetsus turned towards him as one. "He's not ready," Black Zetsu argued, his voice like gravel against Madara's ears. "He's more likely to be a liability," White Zetsu added.

"He is vulnerable now," Madara said, authority seeping into his voice. "We shall twist him to our cause. Go distract the Konoha shinobi. I'll take care of Sasuke." There was a distortion of space, and Madara's body vanished into a dimensional rift.

With Sasuke in their hands, luring the Kyūbi away from Konoha's walls would be almost insultingly simple.

~o0O0o~

Road to Ninja

From the sky came a living bolt of lightning. With horns of a stag, a carp's whiskers, and a long snake-like body, it was a terrifying, glorious image: a creature of the gods, come down to earth to do man's bidding. It lunged with a piercing screech, so fast that Itachi barely had time to blink.

For a single moment, the world vanished with the thunder clap.

Then it was over. Itachi was flat on his back. The ground around him glowed a cherry red.

Sasuke lowered his hand, allowing the chidori he'd been holding to fizzle out, and the high-pitched chirps of electricity died away. Slowly, the storm overhead faded, most of the negative atmospheric charge having been spent in that single burst, and the clouds began to disperse. The jutsu he'd used was only limited to one attack, but that did not matter. It was a sure shot.

If there was one thing Orochimaru had been useful for, it was his near-limitless knowledge of jutsu. If the man didn't know a technique himself, he at least knew the theory behind it and from there could reverse-engineer it.

And now, one of those jutsu had granted Sasuke his vengeance.

He leapt to the ground, blithely ignoring the panic spreading out of control amongst the civilians all around him, steadily making his way to the Itachi's body lying face-up in the middle of a ruined street. He wanted to look at his brother's corpse up close, to smash its head in, to stab it in the chest over and over until there was nothing but a bloody pulp.

He would have preferred Itachi be alive for that, though. He'd earned it a hundred times over.

Sasuke didn't so much as look when one of the houses nearby collapsed with a groan of splintering wood, spewing burning ash every which way. The air sang with fire, and coarse smoke filled his lungs, but he ignored it. He didn't bother to listen to the screams of the townsfolk as they desperately tried to save their city. It was a necessary sacrifice, one that he'd gladly pay again.

He came to a stop at Itachi's body, and all distractions faded away. He'd done it. He'd made his vision a reality, and now Itachi was lying at his feet with his clothes blackened and smoking, his face pale, almost ghostly white, dark and drying blood spilling from his mouth down his chin. He found himself fascinated with his brother's regal features, slack and horribly burned.

Uchiha Itachi was dead at last.

Laughter, dark and boundless, bubbled up from deep within Sasuke's chest. He could feel the weight of the world being lifted from his shoulders, hear the damning cries of his murdered family begin to quiet.

It was finally over!

This was the happiest he had ever been in his entire life, a feeling of joy and relief so profound that he questioned if he was simply dreaming. Still laughing, he drew his snake sword, moulding the last of his own chakra into lightning that was sent coursing through the length of the blade. He stabbed down at his brother's chest with the full intention of desecrating the corpse until it was an unrecognizable piece of meat.

Itachi's eyes snapped open, sharingan-red and very much alive.

Before Sasuke even had time process what he was seeing, Itachi had rolled out of the way and shot to his feet, and the snake sword buried itself into the street, its electric-honed edge easily slicing through the cobbled stone.

Sasuke's laughter died with a strangled gasp. He flinched back as Itachi appeared right in front of him, expression frighteningly dark.

"That is enough, Sasuke. You will cease this foolishness at once or I will stop you." Itachi did not yell. His voice was a tightly controlled whipcord of fury, his every syllable dripping with reproach.

"Damn you! Just die already!" Sasuke focused for a moment, then clenched his jaw and curled back his lips in a snarl as he drew cursed power from the seal on his neck. It released in a wave of ink and fire, and at the last moment something more, but Sasuke paid it no heed, too focused on the man who had cheated death.

Itachi simply stared as Sasuke transformed into his monstrous form, and his sharingan pulsed, stretching into something unfamiliar and filled with power. The air around him shimmered a fiery orange as a titanic skeletal torso burned into existence. "If I hadn't used this Susanō, I likely would have fallen to your attack."

Something cold settled in the pit of Sasuke's stomach.

He screamed his frustration, then charged, his blade brimming with the strength of a thunderbolt. Itachi glared, and the Susanō gained flesh, armor, a cloak, and a spiraled shield. Sasuke struck, the Susanō blocked, and there was a ripple of energy as Sasuke was sent flying back, his sword completely torn from his grip and hurled in the opposite direction far from his reach.

After dozens of yards of skidding across the street, Sasuke pushed himself to his feet and growled at his brother, not quite exhausted but close to it.

"This is the shield known as the Yata Mirror," Itachi explained, answering the unspoken question. "It can reflect any attack without fail. Give up. There is no possibility of victory for you."

A soul-killing sense of hopelessness came over him, and Sasuke faltered. Was this really the end? All of that work, all of that pain and suffering only to fail? Would his family never be avenged?

In the dark confines of his mind, a familiar raspy voice whispered poison in his ear.

It hurts, doesn't it? To be so helpless.

Sasuke's eyes screwed shut as the seal on his neck suddenly twisted, and a pain so deep it was intimate began to radiate from it in agonizing pulses. Sasuke fell to his knees, clutching at his neck, unable to even move.

You need me, don't you Sasuke? I thought you were going to get your revenge.

The pain from the curse seal grew intense and focused until Sasuke wasn't even sure how he was still alive.

Now, release my power! Then your vengeance shall be within your grasp!

White snakes sprang forth from his neck, tearing themselves free of their host, and Sasuke screamed as he felt a sensation like his soul was being ripped from his flesh. His blood was fire. His bones were cracked. His senses were fading, but the pain was not. The pain was growing and growing, and Sasuke could do nothing to stop it, completely at its mercy.

Eight serpents the size of buildings hissed and tasted the air with forked tongues, their fangs dripping with venom. Their scales were white, their eyes were yellow, and they were all connected at the base to Sasuke's curse seal.

If Itachi had been angry before, now he was downright murderous. His eyes were wide with rage, and his jaw was clenching so tight that his teeth were beginning to crack.

The Susanō giant around the older Uchiha held up one hand, and a gourd came into existence. The giant popped off the cork, and in a flash a liquid gold blade had beheaded two of the snakes. The others hissed and struck, poisoned fangs bared, only to crash into the Yata mirror and have the force of their attack directed right back at them, sending them reeling. Another flash, and three more heads fell lifeless to the ground.

Two of the snake heads wrapped around the Susanō, seeking to immobilize it, to squeeze it and break it. The giant struggled for a moment, its arms pinned to its sides, then in one fluid motion it threw off the snakes and slashed, beheading them both.

The last snake paused to stare at its fallen brethren before looking skyward and opening its mouth as wide as it could. At the back of its throat, something slimy and black emerged.

"You've finally shown yourself." There was no inflection in Itachi's voice, but the tone was dangerously low and menacing.

The shiny black something paused and seemed to shake with laughter before it emerged further. Orochimaru tilted his head back, and his hair fell away from his face, revealing pale skin and reptilian yellow eyes.

Then the agony paused—paused, not receded—and Sasuke heard the voice of a man he'd personally killed.

"Kukuku, Uchiha Itachi. I must thank you for weakening Sasuke like this. Now that all of his repressive chakra is gone, I was able to emerge! Now's my chance to take over his body! Now I can—"

Itachi's eyes pulsed, and the Susanō giant whipped its liquid blade forward and pierced Orochimaru straight through the middle of his chest. The Snake Summoner blinked a bit in surprise before letting out a mocking laugh. "Ignorant child, did you really believe that something like this could—" He went rigid, and his pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

Itachi smiled grimly. Tears of blood trailed down his face. "This is the end for you, Orochimaru."

Orochimaru screamed, his voice given volume by rage and terror, "This sword, it can't be! The Totsuka Blade?!"

The Susanō giant twisted the wrist of its sword arm, and Orochimaru gasped as the blade wrecked havoc on his organs.

Itachi raise an open hand, then suddenly clenched it into a fist. "Disappear."

Orochimaru wailed as he melted and his body lost form, helpless as he was reeled in by the liquid blade. The white snakes he was attached to soon followed, not a single scale spared from imprisonment, and within a moment they were all sealed away into the gourd.

All but a tiny, white serpent that had detached itself before it could suffer the same fate.

It did its best to slither away, hoping to escape in the commotion.

It died in a surprise burst of Amaterasu, and Itachi spoke with quiet murder, "Did you truly believe you could get away?" The snake only continued writhing, burning away until even the ash was gone. After that, the flames burned on nothing but air, and they would continue to burn for seven days and seven nights with the unforgiving heat of a great black sun.

On the ruined streets of Tanzaku Gai next to the crisping serpent, Sasuke knelt in utter exhaustion. His curse seal was gone, as was the accompanying pain, but his power had abandoned him. He was helpless.

He could only stare, absolute horror dawning on his features as he blindly stumbled back. "You—Why are you still alive?! Why won't you just die?!"

Desperate hands reached into his weapons pouch and rapidly hurled a pair of kunai laced with several lit exploding tags attached to each. They predictably clanged off the shield of Itachi's Susanō and detonated, the explosions unable to so much as scathe the ethereal armor.

Sasuke flinched back, a damning sense of hopelessness beginning to encroach on his mind.

Itachi's eyes narrowed, "Even with Orochimaru's wretched influence no longer staining you, it seems your mind is still poisoned." The strange sharingan spun, and Sasuke found himself desperately moving back as Itachi forged his way towards him. "Tell me, Sasuke, what was so worth it to you that you'd try to kill me? What twisted promises has Orochimaru made? Power? Knowledge? Immortality?"

Sasuke backed into a wall and his pupils shrunk as he began to hyperventilate. "Damn you, Itachi!"

He was cornered, and after calling the Kirin he had completely run out of chakra, leaving him with no means of defending himself. But that didn't matter. He would not die sniveling and weak. He refused to let it end like this.

"Burn in Hell!"

With a roar of berserker fury, he charged, palming a kunai in each hand. If it came down to it, he'd strike at that shield over and over until it finally stopped reflecting his attacks, and then he'd rip his brother's throat out with his bare hands.

Itachi vanished from his field of vision. Tired as Sasuke was, his sharingan wasn't activated, so he couldn't track the motion. Even if he could, it wouldn't have mattered. Itachi was simply too fast, too skilled.

Something hard hit the back of his head. Darkness swallowed his vision, and his mind faded to nothingness.

I failed . . .

~o0O0o~

Road to Ninja

Itachi looked over his brother's unconscious form, anger and worry warring within him. "What has Orochimaru done to you, Sasuke?" he whispered to himself. "How could none of us have seen?"

There was a sudden hiss of steam and the sound of a great rush of water, and Itachi felt himself get completely drenched as water came pouring from the sky without warning in a torrential downpour. All around him civilians began to cry with relief as the fire that had been raging out of control was finally neutralized. Itachi would have been on guard because that was a jutsu that had just put out the fire, but he could easily recognize the source of said jutsu.

Three figures landed in front of him. A tall, lanky man with a mask over his mouth, wild silver hair, and a Konoha headband tugged over one eye; the son of the Yellow Flash, a grave teen with spiky yellow hair and cold blue eyes; and Lord Fourth's daughter with short pink hair framing a wide forehead and a bright emerald gaze.

The remaining members of Team Seven, arrived at last.

"Yo, Itachi!" Kakashi greeted, so cheerful it was borderline irritating.

Itachi inclined his head in polite greeting. "Kakashi-senpai, Sakura, Menma."

Sakura started towards Itachi, concern in her eyes at his many burns and cuts, but he waved her off. "I'm fine. Take care of Sasuke."

She hesitated for a moment, but after Kakashi nodded to let her know it was alright she made her way to Sasuke's body, coating her hands with green chakra for a quick diagnostic. "Heart rate's normal, breathing is good, pupils aren't dilated," she muttered, almost to herself.

As Sakura continued treating her teammate Menma frowned, serious as ever, his icy gaze taking on a calculating glint. "Itachi-san, what exactly happened here? Why is Sasuke unconscious? Was there an enemy to Konoha?"

The last one would have been a welcome alternative. Then Sasuke wouldn't have been insane, and Orochimaru wouldn't have corrupted his mind. But Sasuke was, and Orochimaru did, so Itachi just sighed, unwilling to answer right away. Menma seemed to realize he wouldn't be making any progress at that moment, so he just left it at that.

Off to the side, Sakura declared Sasuke fit to travel as soon as he woke up.

Itachi fought back a wince, his discomfort surfacing on his features for the barest of seconds. It was enough to catch Kakashi's eye. "Why don't we rest a bit, Sakura," he proposed. "Itachi's probably tired. We should give him a chance to get his strength back."

"Yes, sensei."

Kakashi's eyes flashed to meet Itachi's, and quick signals were exchanged.

'Danger?'

'Yes.'

'Who?'

'White Snake returned.'

A slight pause as twitching fingers betrayed Kakashi's shock. Itachi didn't blame him.

'Where?'

'Neutralized.'

There was a glance at the small patch of soil that still burned with black fire.

'Explain later.'

'Yes.'

Sakura didn't notice the exchange, still occupied with propping Sasuke up against a nearby wall. Menma on the other hand looked like he hadn't seen, but Itachi knew better. Nothing escaped that boy's gaze.

"Tsunade-sama won't be happy with the bill Konoha will receive for this," the teen observed, calculating eyes roving over burned and collapsed buildings and torn-up streets.

Itachi pressed a hand to his forehead with an exhausted sigh. "She won't be," he agreed.

Sasuke, what are we going to do with you?

~o0O0o~

Author's Note: It's been forever, I know. Just remember, my stories never die unless I kill them myself.

Anyway, who do you think has the worst deal right now? Canon!Sasuke or RtN!Sasuke? And why?